Leaders John Cummins (Conservative), Christy Clark(Liberal), Adrian Dix (NDP) and Jane Sterk (Green) get set in the studio for their T.V. debate in Vancouver on April 29, 2013.Mark van Manen
/ PNG

BC Liberal leader Christy Clark, right, shakes hands with BC NDP leader Adrian Dix prior to a all candidates radio debate in Vancouver, B.C. Friday, April 26, 2013. British Columbians will go to the polls May 14th.JONATHAN HAYWARD
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

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VANCOUVER — Leaders from British Columbia’s two major political parties clashed in the election’s only televised debate Monday night, throwing directly at each other the messages they’ve been carrying around the province since the election began two weeks ago.

In a debate that focused almost entirely on jobs and the economy, Premier Christy Clark sought to brand the NDP’s Adrian Dix as a leader who would say ‘no’ to every new economic development project, and who would spend his time in office growing government instead of the economy.

In return, Dix lashed out at Clark for making what he said were false claims on the success of her jobs plan, on her budget and on her promise to eliminate the province’s debt within 15 years.

“The premier has ‘debt free’ on the side of her bus and she’s overseeing the largest increase in debt in B.C. history,” Dix said in one exchange.

“A jobs plan – they advertised $16 million that could have been used for other priorities – lost 34,800 private sector jobs,” he continued, going on to challenge Clark on her deficit budgets and tax increase.

The lines culminated in Dix’s most pointed attack of the night: “I don’t think it’s good for the province to run a fact-free campaign.”

Clark shot back.

“What you propose to do, Mr. Dix is grow government,” she said.

“You propose to rack up debt, raise taxes and send our kids to Alberta to work.”

Though the two traded several one-liners, neither delivered a decisive blow, and many of the exchanges ended inconclusively because time for the topics ran out.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the other two parties looked to make their mark by attacking the leader each saw as their closest competitor.

B.C. Conservative Party leader John Cummins struck right away, hoping to marginalize Clark as the right-of-centre alternative to the NDP.

“Look, everyone knows that the Liberals can’t win this election, so you probably tuned in to see what Adrian Dix will look like as premier,” Cummins said.

“But I’m here to tell you, you have another choice,” he said, pledging to appeal to voters sick of “out-of-control government spending” and “cronies and insiders having the final say in Victoria.”

Green party leader Jane Sterk went after Dix – her biggest competitor on the left — on his proposal to increase welfare rates by just $20 month over two years.

“Mr. Dix, you can’t really believe that $20 a month is a solution to poverty,” she said.

“It’s a pittance, Mr. Dix.”

But while Sterk and Cummins had their moments, the night was really about the showdown between Dix and Clark.

For Dix’s part, he answered Clark’s chief criticism – that he is against economic development – with a litany of industries his party supports.

“My answer is generally yes, I just don’t believe it’s a choice between our economy and our environment,” he said, saying that under the right conditions he is willing to say yes to liquefied natural gas, mining, film and television and tourism.

“What I don’t agree with is, in these times, saying that we should abandon our commitment to climate change,” he said.

Clark used the opportunity to highlight what she sees as the biggest strengths from her time as premier.

“I’ve been working for two years to protect our economy from the global economic turmoil that surrounds us every single day,” she said.

“We have a plan and the plan is working. We’re controlling government spending; we’re putting B.C. on a path to being debt free in 15 years. I believe that is the right thing to do for our children,” she added, calling the election a stark choice” between her vision and the one held by Dix.

Clark also tried to recreate the strong performance she had on the radio debate Friday, by pushing Dix on his changing position on the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

But Dix came more prepared, meeting her criticisms with an assertion that people don’t want to see a “nine-fold increase” in the tanker traffic going in and out of Metro Vancouver.

Clark also provided the strongest answer she has so far on the controversy that arose after a Vancouver Sun story revealed she had run a red light with her 11-year-old son in the car.

“There is no other answer for the people of British Columbia other than to say it was wrong,” she said.

“Through my 11 years as a parent I have made more than one mistake, that’s true. But I dis want you to know that I have worked really hard as a parent to do the best I can to raise my son Hamish to be a young man with the kind of character that we want to be a great citizen of British Columbia.”

Monday’s debate came as polls show the NDP to have a significant lead over the B.C. Liberals.

A poll released last week found the Liberals had gained slightly since the election began, but are still trailing the New Democrats by a gap of 14 points.

Conducted by Angus Reid, the poll found NDP support is unchanged from mid-April, with support from 45 per cent of decided voters.

It found the B.C. Liberals had increased three points from that time to 31 per cent, and the B.C. Conservatives and Greens had both dropped slightly, netting 11 and 10 per cent respectively.

Conducted April 24-25, the poll involved 812 members of an online panel. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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